Slightly less than a fourth of the meetings (27) were related to problems of decolonization in Namibia, Southern Rhodesia, and Timor. discussed in Part III of this report.)

(These are

In other meetings the Council recommended that Kurt Waldheim--whose term as UN Secretary General was to expire at the end of the year--be appointed to a second 5-year term; took action on applications from four states for UN membership, recommending that three be admitted by the General Assembly; and considered some half dozen bilateral disputes between states, as well as the situation in South Africa following riots in Soweto.

Aspects of many of these same international problems were also considered by the General Assembly, which may consider any matter within the scope of the UN Charter, although it may not make recommendations on disputes or situations under active consideration in the Security Council unless the Council asks it to.

On the recommendation of the Security Council, the Assembly by acclamation reappointed Secretary General Waldheim. Also on the Council's recommendation, the Assembly voted to admit Seychelles, Angola, and Western Samoa to the organization, raising total UN membership at the end of the year to 147. Further, the Assembly requested the Council to consider again the application of Vietnam, which had not been recommended for membership because of a U.S. veto.

The General Assembly, in which all members are represented, meets at least annually. Its 31st regular session opened September 21, 1976, and was suspended on December 22. Although some of the items on the Assembly's agenda are considered directly in plenary, most of the sessional work is carried out, in the first instance, in seven main committees of the whole. Political and security questions are generally considered in the First Committee or in the Special Political Committee. The Assembly has also established numerous subsidiary bodies that meet between Assembly sessions, and their reports provide the basis for much of the Assembly's work. These include, in the political area, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, the Special Committee against Apartheid, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization. 31-member Conference of the Committee on Disarmament is not formally a part of the UN system,

but it reports each year to the General Assembly, and it conducts much of its work in response to General Assembly requests. Its report, in turn, forms a basis for many of the recommendations made by the United Nations on disarmament matters.

Most of the political items on the 31st Assembly's agenda were carried over from previous years. There were 18 separate items relating to disarmament, which occupied fully half the time of the First Committee. Although many of the resulting resolutions. essentially reiterated views and actions of previous Assembly sessions, there were two significant new developments. One requested the Secretary General to open for signature the Environmental Modification Convention--which had been negotiated in the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament--and the other called for the convening in 1978 of a special session of the General Assembly devoted to the question of disarmament.

Two other questions considered at length were the various aspects of the Middle East problem and the situation resulting from South Africa's policies. of apartheid. This year, at the request of the African states, the latter was considered directly in plenary rather than in the Special Political Committee.

Other topics considered were the peaceful uses of outer space and the general questions of strengthening peacekeeping operations, strengthening the role of the United Nations, and strengthening international security. Unlike most years, however, the Assembly did not consider the question of Korea. Although two competing items had been proposed for the agenda, both were withdrawn before the Assembly convened.

All of these subjects are discussed in the

pages that follow.

PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT

MIDDLE EAST

Security Council Consideration

Partly as a result of Arab and nonaligned efforts to engage the Security Council more fully in the search for a peace settlement in the Middle East, the Council held nine series of meetings during 1976 on Middle East-related issues.

General Debate on the Middle East

The Council met on January 12 in accordance with the terms of a compromise worked out in connection with the adoption on November 30, 1975, of a Security Council resolution extending for 6 months the mandate of UNDOF (UN Disengagement Observer Force). That resolution included a paragraph stating that the Security Council would "reconvene on 12 January 1976, to continue the debate on the Middle East problem including the Palestinian question, taking into account all relevant United Nations resolutions." At the same time, the Council President made a statement that it was the understanding of the majority of the Security Council that when it reconvened on January 12 the representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) would be invited to participate in the debate.

Opening the debate on January 12, the Council President (Tanzania) proposed that representatives of the PLO be invited to participate in the debate with the same rights as were conferred when a member state was invited to participate under rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure. (The normal procedure would have been under rule 39, which provides for individuals to be invited to make statements and then withdraw.) The procedural proposal, which was not subject to the veto, was adopted by a vote of 11 to 1 (U.S.), with 3 abstentions (France, Italy, U.K.). The precedent for this procedure had been set in December 1975 during the Council's debate on the Israeli attack on Palestinian camps in Lebanon. As he had on that occasion, U.S. Ambassador Daniel P. Moynihan objected strongly to this ad hoc procedure, arguing that what was at stake was not a question of the interests of the Palestinian people in the matter under consideration, but the integrity of Security

Council procedures.1/

The Council met 10 times between January 12 and 26. Israel did not participate in these meetings, because of its unwillingness to join the PLO at the Council table. The first speaker on the substance was the PLO Representative who attacked Security Council resolutions 2422/ and 3383/for having ignored the Palestine question and the national rights of the Palestinian people to independence and sovereignty. Despite Ambassador Moynihan's warning that the Council should not take any action which would alter the agreed, balanced framework for negotiations in resolutions 242 and 338, Benin, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, Romania, and Tanzania submitted a draft resolution which was clearly designed to do just that. The draft laid out four principles which were to be taken fully into account in all future negotiations. These were that: (1) the Palestinian people have the right to selfdetermination, including the right to establish an

1/ The question of inviting the PLO to participate in the Council's debate with essentially the rights of a member state came up four more times in 1976: in March, May, and November in connection with the situation in the occupied territories, and in June in connection with the report of the Palestine Rights Committee. Each time the invitation was approved by a vote of 11 to 1 (U.S.), with 3 abstentions (France, Italy, U.K.).

2/ Resolution 242 of Nov. 22, 1967, affirmed that the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East "should include the application of both the following principles: (i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; (ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." It also affirmed the necessity for guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area; achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem; and guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every state in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones.

3/ Resolution 338 of Oct. 22, 1973, established the cease-fire, called for implementation of resolution 242 in all its parts, and called for negotiations between the parties under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East. This resolution led to the opening of the Middle East Peace Conference at Geneva in December 1973 with the U.S. and U.S.S.R. serving as co-chairmen. The Conference has been in recess since January 1974.

independent state in Palestine; (2) the Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their homes or be compensated for their property; (3) Israel should withdraw from all Arab territories occupied since 1967; and (4) guarantees should be provided for all states in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized borders.

On January 26 the draft resolution was defeated as the result of a U.S. veto. The vote was 9 to 1 (U.S.), with 3 abstentions (Italy, Sweden, U.K.), and Libya and China not participating. The vote demonstrated somewhat less support for the draft resolution than expected and resulted from a British initiative to introduce an additional paragraph which would have specifically reaffirmed resolutions 242 and 338 and declared that the other elements of the draft resolution did not supersede them. It became clear in the course of discussing the British amendment that some members supported the six-power draft on the assumption that it did not supersede resolutions 242 and 338. After the British amendment failed of adoption by a vote of 4 to 2, with 9 abstentions (U.S.)--nine affirmative votes are required for adoption -- Italy and Sweden joined the United Kingdom in abstaining on the overall draft resolution.

Following this vote, the Department of State issued a statement summarizing the negotiating progress already achieved within the framework of resolutions 242 and 338 and expressing the view that, whatever its imperfections, this framework represented the only agreed basis for negotiations. The statement made the further point that the framework was sufficiently flexible to provide the basis for negotiating fair and durable solutions to all the issues involved. Finally, it affirmed U.S. recognition that there would be no permanent peace unless it included arrangements taking into account the legitimate interests and aspirations of the Palestinian people.

Situation in the Occupied Territories

The Council held three series of meetings in 1976 to consider the situation in the occupied Arab territories.

March Debate. At the request of Libya and Pakistan, the Council met seven times between March 22 and 25. This was the first time that both Israel and the PLO took part in a Council debate.

The request for the meetings was triggered by an Israeli lower court ruling which implied that Jews had the right to pray on the Temple Mount, or